I recently updated the Candlelight Service! You can find the new post HERE, but I have changed out the links in the post to the new download in case you land here and don’t care to read the new post. ~Amy

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Every year, my family attended the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at our church. As the sun set, we sang hymns, followed the Christmas story, and watched as the final candle, the Christ candle, was lit. Then, the light was passed around the dark church and faces shown and eyes sparkled in the candlelight.

A people in darkness no more.

For many years after I married, we continued to travel to my home church for this special evening; however, as our family grew, the tradition became a scary one, rather than one filled with beauty. I spent the first half of the service trying to keep the children from eating their candles and the second half trying to keep them from burning themselves. All this while sitting in a church pew longer than my arms could reach. Finally, I decided we would have to give it up and just stay home.

However, I wasn’t about to let go of the tradition and all its rich meaning. Instead, I exchanged the long church pew for my living room and wrote my own Christmas Eve service for our family to enjoy.

The Candlelight Service is a simple one, but so beautiful as it takes hymns and Scripture and follows the story from longing to realization to spreading the Good News!

SO many times I find myself heart connecting with your thoughts and how you express them. Not to get all sappy-happy on you…but sometimes it’s good to hear and say…you fill a Spiritual Mentor void for me. We live in a very spiritually dark area of the country. My husband is Providentially (otherwise we’d be somewhere warmer with more churches!) leading a small church plant. And my heart resources are close to nil. I’ll have little pity parties more often than I care to admit. But then, you’ll post something that speaks to me. Encourages me. Challenges me. Frees me. And it’s such a blessing.

This was my FAVORITE part of Christmas growing up. I was disappointed to see that things had changed to more of a special music service the last time I was back. (I think that may have been the first time I took my husband back home.) I was thinking of writing my own service, too, to have at home, but it wasn’t going to happen this year very well, so thanks so much for sharing!

Thank you so much for sharing this special tradition. I will put it in the works for our family’s Christmas dinner together. A few people in our family are lost (that sadly includes my Dad) and I hope this will help bring the light of Christ into their hearts.

I’ve been thinking about doing something like this since we will actually be home this year instead of traveling. Reading the Christmas story, candles and family communion – I cannot think of a better way to celebrate Christmas.

I can’t seem to find how to download this Christmas Eve Service. I am already signed up to receive your emails. Can you help? I already downloaded the Thanksgiving Service and would love to have the Christmas one as well! Thank you for your blog! I know it is a lot of work and I am continually blessed by it!

Hi April! If you signed up for emails, you should have gotten a follow-up email with the link to the Subscriber Freebie page. Additionally, every email that comes from Raising Arrows website will have the link and password in the bottom of the email. :)

Hi Amy! It is a subscriber download, so it never goes away for subscribers to the blog. It’s on a password protected page here that can be accessed for subscribers. The password is in the bottom of every email that comes from the blog. :)

I signed up for this late – we are doing the Twelve Days of Christmas in our home this year and I think we can still incorporate this into our family worship. Will the emails still include a link even though it is past Christmas? Thank you for your time and Merry Christmas to you and your family.

I’m looking for a simple Christmas Eve Service that I can share with the residents of the Nursing Home that I am a Chaplain at. The simpler, the better! They are not “into” a lot of pomp and pageantry so your service sounds perfect. I look forward to hearing from you.

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Just 11 short days after this photo was taken, our 5th child, Emily, died. To read her story click on her picture. To find resources for grieving families, visit The Grieving Mother section of this site.